Snapchat is agreeing to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission on charges that it was deceiving its users. (Jens Büttner/Jens Büttner/picture-alliance/d)

This agreement will not self-destruct in five seconds.

Snapchat, the mobile application claiming to let users send and receive photos and videos that disappear after viewing, has agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it deceived users over the amount of personal data collected from their mobile devices as well as how the service actually works.

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"If a company markets privacy and security as key selling points in pitching its service to consumers, it is critical that it keep those promises," FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a Thursday statement.

According to the statement, the case alleges that Snapchat's failure to secure its Find Friends feature led to the Dec. 31 security breach that allowed attackers to take personal information of 4.6 million of the service's users and compile them into a database.

Snapchat also made multiple misrepresentations about how its app works, according to the FTC, specifically referring to how the company described the "ephemeral" nature of its messages or "snaps." While the company has marketed that snaps "disappear forever," the complaint details that it is very simple to save snaps indefinitely using third-party apps.

As part of the settlement, Snapchat agrees to not misrepresent its services including the extent its messages are deleted after being viewed as well as to what extent they are capable of being saved by others. Snapchat will also have to establish a comprehensive privacy program to address privacy risks and protect information collected, which would be watched by a third party. According to the Associated Press, the agreement is similar to privacy settlements agreed upon by Google, Facebook and Myspace in recent years.

Should Snapchat violate the agreement, the company could pay a civil penalty of up to $16,000 per instance.

Snapchat, whose CEO is 23-year-old Evan Spiegel, posted on its blog Thursday that some of its mistakes came from the app’s early days. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Snapchat has posted an apologetic note regarding the FTC agreement onto its official blog Thursday, stating that some of its mistakes came from the app's early days.

"While we were focused on building, some things didn't get the attention they could have," the blog states. "One of those was being more precise with how we communicated with the Snapchat community."

The company also states that they are continuing to invest in security and countermeasures to prevent abuse.

Other charges alleged by the FTC include ways users can access Snapchat's videos from a mobile device's storage area, can take a screenshot of snaps without notifying the sender and that the company transmitted geolocation on users of its Android app despite saying in its privacy policy that it did not track or access this information.